But frankly the sort of responses you have been getting to date are how they are typically regarded. I have never sailed one but have spoken to plenty of people who do and I have to say they seem happy enough with them. When I asked one ownere (who incidentally had just sailed thousands of miles) if he had ever holed it (expecting that it would disintegrate even under modest impact in comic book proportions) I was told that when he had been unfortunate enough to hole it the hole went straight through and only impacted locally meaning that it did not leave stress fractures throughout the boat as one might expect with something so potentially brittle.

The fact is though that there are a number of them that have sailed the seas for a long time. Hartley in New Zealand designed a whole host of them.

If you just want to get out on the water then by all means give a ferro a try. It won''t break any records and if you are only out there to cruise who cares. Provided it doesn''t leak and gives you what you want that is all that matters. They are cheap enough because of the public prejudice but at the other end when you go to sell you''ll probably drop a lot of cash too.

People being what they are therefore tend to avoid them like the plague. They are often built by amateurs and unlike steel boats which often built the same way the workmanship on ferro boats is hard to detect and more expensive to fix.

So if you have been getting advice along those lines maybe you should heed it. Long term if you are really intent on sailing then rock boats as they are sometimes referred to are not for you.

Go smaller if there is a problem with cash and go safe by buying a well recognised production hull if you can get it.

Hey and if that doesn''t convince you then hell just buy a ferro boat anyway. Sometimes we are all too conservative for our own good!

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